1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a color code formed by arranging a plurality of color phases.
2. Prior Art
From the prior art, inventions such as optical character reader (OCR), optical mark reader (OMR) and bar code reader are known which read out black-colored characters and symbols, recognizing these letters and symbols from their line width and line spacing.
However, in the case when a color other than black or when a plurality of colors are mixed, the read out becomes imprecise. In addition, when the substrate onto which the code will be printed is a stretchable material, for example, linen products such as towels and the like, expansion or shrinkage of the line width and line spacing occurs such that this code cannot be applied to such substrates.
Furthermore, recently, because codes are being used in a number of different fields, the amount of information to be calculated has dramatically increased. With this dramatic increase in the amount of information, there has been a corresponding shortage in the number of columns of a code.
In an effort to solve this problem concerning the shortage in the number of columns of a code, a method for increasing the amount of information by providing a plurality of color phases other than black to a bar code is stated in Japanese Patent Application, First Publication No. Hei 2-144683. Additionally, a Vorbox code is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application, First Publication No. Sho 63-278189.
However, the increasing the amount of information by providing color phases to a bar code, as with the normal black-colored bar code, cannot be applied to substrates which stretch such as linen products e.g. towels and the like.
In addition, with regard to the Vorbox code, there exist limits to the forms of the code itself, as well as problems in that this code cannot be applied to substrates which stretch over a certain value.
In a color code which utilizes color phases other than black and possesses an increased amount of information, it is an objective of the present invention to solve the aforementioned problems and to achieve a color code which can precisely and correctly read out codes (data) even in the case when applied to substrates which stretch such as linen products and the like.